Chance-controlled question and answer devices have been known heretofore. In many such prior arrangements, a chance-controlled indicator is utilized to select a symbol which may be used to access coded source materials. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,155,851 to J. Welch, a rotatable pointer is adapted for chance registration with one of a plurality of radial sectors formed on a gameboard. Each sector has a unique symbol associated with it which is used together with a deck of cards and an associated book of answers as a guide to ascertain the answer to a question posed. U.S. Pat. No. 880,640 to C. H. Emerson discloses a chance-controlled device which is used with a book having a series of coded questions and answers. The chance-controlled mechanism consists of a receptacle provided with a ball-mixing chamber and a plurality of ball pockets in which balls from the mixing chamber are received in a file or row. The balls are colored so as to portray a pattern obtained by chance which corresponds to one of the coded answers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,596 to Yamamoto discloses a stacking game device in which a plurality of magnetized game pieces are inserted one at a time on top of one another into each of a plurality of cylindrical bores formed in a piece holder block. The length of each stacked row of game pieces formed thereby will vary depending upon whether individual pieces within each of the bores are subject to magnetic attraction or repulsion acting between the opposed ends of the pieces. For example, a stack of such magnets in which two or more are subject to mutually repulsive forces will extend outwardly from the holes in the piece holder. Such variations in the lengths of the rows of magnets may be visually or tactily perceptible and thereby used to play a game.
While such prior type of chance-controlled devices may be used together with a fortune book for the purpose of foretelling the future on the basis of a chance selection of a coded symbol, none suggests a method or technique based upon magnetic phenomena to create or form a symbol, particularly the lines of trigrams and hexagrams which are needed in order to consult the I-Ching.
Traditionally, an I-Ching hexagram is constructed line by line, beginning with the bottom line. For each line of the hexagram, the consultant of the I-Ching must use a chance method to determine whether the line is to be solid or broken, the most fundamental element of the process. Each hexagram is constructed of six such lines, with each line having two possible states, i.e., broken or unbroken. Each such hexagram, and there are sixty-four distinct hexagrams, and its constituent lines is the subject of a coded oracular pronouncement and commentary which may be located within the written text of the I-Ching.
Several methods have been utilized heretofore for creating a hexagram to be used in consulting the I-Ching. One of the most ancient of such techniques is referred to as the Yarrow Oracle and involves the use of fifty stalks, preferably from the yarrow plant. Bamboo skewers were also used, as have been drinking straws in more recent times. The stalks are divided into random groups or piles in accordance with ancient and understood steps. Tradition has dictated various manipulations and countings of the groups of stalks in order to determine the several lines of each hexagram.
Because the process for the Yarrow Oracle is intricate and time consuming, another method of determining the character of a line of the hexagram was devised. This alternative method involves the tossing of three coins, the sides of which are assigned arbitrary numerical values. This technique for defining the lines of an I-Ching hexagram is known as the Coin Oracle. The Coin Oracle is somewhat simpler to perform than the Yarrow Oracle because there are only four possible results from the toss of the three coins: three heads, two heads, two tails and three tails. Once again, tradition has assigned the creation of a broken line to certain of the results from a toss of the coins and the creation of a solid line to other such results. Each throw of the coins determines a single line of the hexagram.
Both the Yarrow and Coin Oracles may be criticized as being indirect, i.e., relying on an arbitrary equivalence of the numbers resulting from the various manipulative methods to the character of a line of the hexagram. In addition, both require the relatively time consuming intermediate steps of writing down the result of each manipulation so that the separate lines of the hexagram will be remembered. Moreover, neither of these methods for producing a hexagram can produce a single unique result representative of a solid line and another single unique result representative of a broken line. Both prior methods produce multiple results in the form of numbers which must be further attributed to one type of line or the other. This inability of the prior methods to produce a single definite result for each of the two types of lines of the hexagram diminishes the claim that such methods are perfectly representative of two fundamental and distinct elemental forces at work in the universe.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for generating personalized chance-controlled images or patterns which may be correlated to words, letters, sounds or other information yielding communications codes and the like.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus by which the lines of the I-Ching hexagram may be formed directly, without the necessity for complex or arbitrary intermediate steps, calculations or writings.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus by which the lines of the I-Ching hexagram may be formed through utilization of the elemental force of magnetism and the unpredictability of the interrelationship which develops between a plurality of randomly juxtaposed magnets.
Yet another object of the present invention is to create the lines of an I-Ching hexagram as a reflection of the basic universal force of magnetism, the resulting lines of the hexagram being thereby more demonstrative than previous methods of universal forces and the interrelationship of opposites, upon which the theory and philosophy of the I-Ching is based.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a Magnetic Oracle method for chance generation of the lines of the I-Ching hexagram which is more direct and more convenient than the prior known methods.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a Magnetic Oracle method for chance generation of the lines of the I-Ching hexagram in which the instruments of chance, in and of themselves, form a direct visual representation of the lines of the hexagram.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus by which the lines of the I-Ching hexagram may be formed by the chance-controlled selection of pre-established fragments or sections of the traditional symbol of the two opposing forces upon whose interaction a major theory explaining the operation of the I-Ching is based.